Steer clear of bullet-fest

A Man Apart (3 bombs) Will require therapy after viewing

Vin Diesel is wearing more makeup than the lead in a transvestite revue in the soft-focus opening shot, thus distracting the audience from what's to come: a bullet-fest about a special team of undercover cops trying to stop the drug trade in Southern California.

My first thought? "Drugs in California? No way!" After a few minutes of mass murder and epileptic editing, I realized I needed to be on drugs just to keep up with who was getting shot and why.

"A Man Apart" has more sustained automatic gunfire than a Charlton Heston family reunion. Sean Vetter (Diesel) is the super-tough cop, so manly that he can pass a grapefruit and deliver a gut-wrenching eulogy simultaneously.

After Vetter's hot wife (Jacqueline Obradors) is murdered by drug baddies, Vetter makes it his mission to rid the world of the pushers, risking the life of his partner (Larenz Tate) and everyone else within a square mile of his location like a one-man daisy-cutter bomb.

Ultimately, director F. Gary Gray forgoes storytelling and character development for the sweet sound of automatic gunfire and bullets splashing through flesh. And who in America isn't in the mood for this sort of thing right now? For only $9, you can leave your real-world cares behind and spend two hours in a dark theater watching a bloody, two-hour gunfight.